You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. The second round of the aedile elections takes place on the Field of Mars Marcus Cicero is victorious against all the odds.

B. Tyrrell largely destroys the portrayal of the trial as it shows up here in his biography of Labienus, and the latter was rather the opposite of what Harris supposes, as is demonstrated by ES Ramage in 'Augustus' Treatment of Julius Caesar'.The character of Tiro for instance remains completely flat throughout the book, which accounts for a lifespan of approx 60 of his 99 years. Cicero emerges as a multi-dimensional, and very human figure: a great intellect, an acid wit, highly ambitious, but also vulnerable to nerves and mood slumps. Harris describes Cicero, Caesar and Octavian (among others) in the same high level of detail as the world building. Dictator is an underwhelming finale and such an overlong snore of a read - I wouldn’t recommend it at all. Cicero is summoned to the house of Metellus Pius, pontifex maximus, and requested to prosecute Catilina over his extortion as governor in Africa.

Except I really want to read Dictator, the final book in Robert Harris’ Cicero trilogy, which I’m hoping will be awesome, and I’ve been on a Harris kick lately, so I powered through Lustrum – and I was right the first time because unfortunately it ain’t all that and a bag of potatoes!

Our politicians have long way to go, in terms of cynicism, greed, nastiness, incompetence, arrogance, treachery, and intriguing. At one level it certainly does bowl along, and I did find myself turning the pages avidly to see what happened next. Despite this fidelity, he also manages to make Cicero more sympathetic than he easily might have been, since Harris is careful to mostly elide his somewhat repellent contempt for the Roman poor. Verres goes into exile and Hortenius makes a written offer of one and a half million which Cicero and his team reject. Part one sees Cicero rise to power, part 2 shows what he does with it and part 3 describes the chaotic aftermath in which the man is mainly naive, obstinate and melancholy.

He has been a television correspondent with the BBC and a newspaper columnist for the London Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph. On a visit to the stone quarries, they encounter crews of merchant ships imprisoned there that should have been captured pirates whom Verres had ransomed. I tried reading Lustrum a while ago but gave up early on, sensing that it wasn’t anywhere near as good as its preceding book, Imperium. The great strength of Harris' Cicero Trilogy is the economy of language used to take the reader through, what is in effect, a fictionalised biography.

Felt as if I were witnessing the triumphs and vagaries of a nobler, more spirited form of democracy in action. I only started it on the recommendation of a friend and got to exactly half-way through before finding that Robert Harris seems to have no talent for characterisation. We can only hope we have learnt from history, though it would appear the noisy rabble have the momentum, and will usher in those who promise much but intend to enrich themselves at the expense of the majority - if you haven't read the book you can't have an informed opinion!